FAA launches deployment of AMASS throughout USA

Installation
of a new runway collision avoidance system will go ahead immediately at 34
major US airports following an FAA decision today to field the system
nationwide.

An
FAA spokesman says the agency will begin deploying the airport movement area
safety system (AMASS) - designed to warn air traffic controllers visually and
aurally of serious runway collision risks in time for them to take action - at
the USA’s 34 busiest airports from June.

Deployment
of AMASS at all 34 airports – and at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington DC -
is scheduled for completion in November 2002.

“We
decided to field the program nationally [because] the nuisance alerts and
problems [that AMASS testing threw up] were worked out to our satisfaction,”
says the spokesman, stressing that the FAA does not intend AMASS to provide
alarms every time there is any chance of a runway incursion happening, but only
when the risk of a collision is high.

AMASS
is an enhancement to the airport surface detection equipment Model 3 (ASDE-3)
ground surveillance radar already in use at 33 major US airports. The new
system processes surveillance data from the ASDE-3 and the terminal automation
system to detect conflicts based on the position, velocity and acceleration of
airborne arriving aircraft with ground-based aircraft and vehicles.

The
FAA has been testing AMASS at San Francisco International Airport and at
Detroit Wayne County Municipal Airport, with maintenance and oversight of the
developmental system based at the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC.

In
June, however, AMASS maintenance and program oversight will transfer to the
FAA’s facilities in San Francisco and Detroit. The two airports will be the
first to use AMASS in normal operations.

The
schedule calls for St Louis and Atlanta to follow in making AMASS operational
in July. Two systems will go into operation at Los Angeles in August, then
Chicago O’Hare and Salt Lake City will introduce AMASS in September.

August
2002 will see AMASS become operational at San Diego and at Denver
International, with two systems to be installed at the Colorado airport.

Anchorage
and Dallas/Fort Worth will make AMASS operational in September 2002. New York
LaGuardia, Washington Dulles and Charlotte will introduce the system in October
2002, and then Houston Intercontinental and Andrews Air Force Base the
following month.

Washington
Reagan National Airport will receive at an unspecified date the AMASS system
that the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City has been using for developmental
work.